


The Trains - Phan

by eteey



Series: The Trains [1]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: M/M, Phan - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-26
Updated: 2014-02-26
Packaged: 2018-01-13 20:55:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1240501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eteey/pseuds/eteey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warning: anxiety/panic attack</p><p>Art here: https://31.media.tumblr.com/9c7e54d9a763a9de9f09ee91a723b51e/tumblr_n1kxvy6XhK1s5v8f6o1_500.png<br/>Done by the amazing moreorlester.tumblr.com</p></blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

My name is Phil Lester and I am fascinated by the trains.

We’re not allowed to talk about the trains, or the things inside them. We’re not allowed to talk about them, but we do. It’s done quietly in dark alleys or empty rooms. It’s discussed in hushed voices behind bushes, late at night, on abandoned pathways leading into the forest. It’s only acknowledged to those you can trust, to those who won’t give you up to the Guards for money. 

Children are taught from an early age to ignore it, not to question it. Of course this goes against their nature; a child’s natural instinct is to question everything. That’s why, if a child mentions the trains, they are not punished by the law, but they are hushed and lead away by embarrassed parents, and, depending on which parents they have, punished at home. After a child reaches the age of 10 they can be punished by the law for mentioning the trains. Punishments are not severe for the younger ones, but for an adult it can range from 5 to 50 years in the restrainment block, depending on how deeply it’s discussed. 

There are other crimes too, where you get put in the restrainment block, but all the other crimes make sense to me. It makes sense to imprison a man for ending the life of another. Yet why are we being punished for questioning? 

I sit in the north woods, the ones closest to the train tracks. To most citizens, the trains are a thing to fear, a thing of anxiousness. To me it was different, yes I’ve heard the rumours, yet I am intrigued. I want to know what is in those trains, whose screams you can hear every time they drive through, whose hands and other unrecognizable limbs you see poking through the gaps in the wood of the crates. This is why I sit by the tracks.

I think of my parents, sitting at home. My mother is probably fussing over my little sister, Tina. My father is probably getting his uniform for work on. I imagine him straightening his tie in front of the looking glass and kissing my mother and Tina goodbye before setting off on his way to the city hall. My father works as a politician of some sort, he makes decisions and helps write laws, he’s in direct contact with the leader of our Area. 

I live in Area 42. There are exactly 100 Areas in total. Each Area has a leader and the exactly the same number of workers, harvesters, and other various jobs. Each Area is made to look the same. Of course I have never visited another Area. But we see pictures of the other Areas in school and occasionally, on the news. The news is broadcasted daily in the town square and on televisions for those rich enough to own one.

Our family is not rich, we are not poor though. We are not rich enough to own a television or beds for everyone, but we do not starve and that is the main point. I usually watch the news in the town, but some days I don’t want to know about the floods or the constant hunger in other Areas. Every Area is immediately restored, obviously. Our leader seems to be obsessed with every Area being the same. Once, when I was 8, I asked why every Area was the same and was told a quick story about how, many years ago, everywhere was different and some places had more and some had less and the ones with less rebelled against the ones with more, so now our leader has learnt from the past.

I walk along a hill, from this view I can see the tracks, in the distance and small, but I can see them. The tracks reassure, they calm me down in a way. They might be feared and ignored, but they remind me that there is another place, no matter how horrible it is, it must be better than this bland life. I want to know what goes past in the trains; I want to know where they go, where they come from. It looks like human limbs poking out of the crates, but what human could make that horrible wailing, screeching sound? Why are the arms so dirty? Why do the things seem so desperate to be helped, yet never ask for it?

I sit down in the long, undisturbed grass. No-one comes here so it’s one of the only undisturbed places of wilderness we have left. In the “parks” the grass is mowed every day and there are no weeds or stray bushes or branches. Basically everything in our Area is perfect, and from what I’ve seen of other Areas, everything is perfect there too. Except here, near the tracks, here it’s wild and beautiful. I love it here. 

I play with blades of grass absentmindedly as I think. The train should be coming through today. I always try to be here when it drives past. I like to think that the more often I see the trains, the closer I will be to figuring out the secrets behind them. But in all honesty, all I see are dirty arms or the occasional leg, and all I hear are screams and sobs. I am no closer to working out what the things are, or where they go, than I was the first time I saw the train.

I enjoy, not only being near the trains, but also being alone. I love being only with my thoughts, with people there’s the constant fear of messing up my words or saying the wrong thing, with myself I don’t need to speak. I don’t like speaking. I always get so nervous of saying the wrong thing or stuttering that I say the wrong thing or stutter. It’s an endless circle. I think about what happened today, I think how the day could’ve gone better or worse, how if I had or hadn’t done that one thing that other thing wouldn’t have happened and therefore my day would’ve been completely different. It’s an amusing way to pass the time.

Take, for instance, today. Today I walked to school as I always do. Some mornings I stop near the old oak tree to climb it and watch the Area wake up. I didn’t climb the tree today, because I was already running late, but imagine, if you will, that I hadn’t paid attention to the time and had climbed the tree, I would’ve been punished, which in turn would have changed my mood and made my reactions to the various events that happened in the day different, which, in turn, would’ve changed the whole day. 

I, unlike many of my peers, don’t hate school. I hate the way our school operates, but I love learning. Allow me to explain, I hate the way the educators treat us like we’re stupid, how they let us fend for ourselves, they never interfere with bullying or teasing, if you tell on someone you can be whipped. I hate the way the other students act like this is a good thing and use it to form cliques and treat each other like dirt. I am not bullied, I don’t think anyone would try, I have a reputation. You see, the first day of superior school, someone tried to intimidate me, thinking I would back down easily, but I, being young and not realising that this person had no intention to actually harm me, punched him in the face and knocked some teeth out. Of course I was severely punished, but, in all honestly, I am punished more or less every day, everything I do seems to be punishable.

I love to learn, I crave knowledge, I want to know when our empire changed so that each Area is the same, and I want to know how they changed it and, if it was so easy, why they didn’t do it earlier. But most of all I want to know about the trains. You could say I have an obsession with the trains, I have thought about this a lot and have concluded that, everything we have is explained eventually if you ask, if only in one sentence with no details, it’s explained. Yet the trains are the one thing no one has given me any information about, I’m not even allowed to ask. 

I can hear the rattling sound of train in the distance. I stop playing with the grass and sit up a little straighter to get a better view of the train. I do something I’ve never done before; I get up from where I usually sit on the top of a hill, in the long grass, and walk closer toward the tracks. I don’t know what compels me to change my routine, but I do. I walk closer and closer, even though my mind is telling me not to, to keep my distance, to go back. 

I can see the train in the distance, but I can’t hear the moans, that enough should be a warning sign that something is different today, but I don’t think about it. I walk until I am about 5 meters from the tracks, at the entrance to the tunnel, into which the train disappears every week. Although I’ve always had a burning desire to know where the trains go, it has never occurred to me to simply follow the tracks. I think about it now, I could walk through the tunnel and never come back, I could solve the mystery. Of course I don’t. I’m not that stupid, who know how longs the tracks go on for, I could starve, dehydrate or be eaten by wild animals before I reach the end.

The train is dangerously close, when I suddenly realise what I’m doing. I hastily take one or two steps back. 

The train is maybe 50 meters away.

40 meters – The lack of wails is making me nervous. I know something is different today and it scares me. 

30 meters – Still no moaning or screaming and is it my imagination or is the train slowing down?

20 meters – It’s definitely slowing down. I can hear a voice saying something, but I can’t hear it properly over the roar of the train’s engine.

10 meters- it’s almost stopped. What’s going on? This has never happened before. I consider running back home and forgetting everything, but my curiosity gets the better of me. 

The train rolls lazily past me until it’s just before the tunnel, where it stops. I stare at the train, eyes wide in shock. 

After the engine slowly dies down I hear the voice: “Help! Somebody help me! Why are we stopped?! What’s going on? It’s so dark! I don’t know where I am! I don’t know what’s happening! HELP!”  
The voice sounds hoarse and dry, as if the owner hadn’t drank anything for a while. At first I don’t reply, I am too scared. But after a while the pleas become more and more desperate and the voice starts sounding more scared. 

Gingerly I take a step forward and say: 

“Hello?”

I hear the voice suck in air in shock before replying desperately: 

“Hello? Someone’s there! Help me! Who are you? Where am I? What’s happening to me?”

I’m not quite sure which question to answer first, I’m not sure I should answer them. Who knows who this person, this…thing is. Do I want to provide them with information? 

So many questions flood my mind: Can all the things talk? If they can they talk why do they only scream and wail? Can only this one thing or person talk? Why is this one different to the others? Why has the trains topped? Have they seen me? Is that why they stopped? Am I about to be caught?

I ask the voice: “Who are you? Why can you talk? What are you?”

The voice answers: “I’m not quite sure who I am. They called me Dan once, so long ago. Or was it? As for why I can talk: why can you talk? I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the brain, but I don’t think I got that far in school. Or did I? I don’t know. I am human, I think. I am Dan. I am trapped and it’s dark. What more do you want?”

I think about this answer a while. I’m quite sure not to make of it. Obviously he has no more of an idea about these trains than me. 

“Can you see anything at all?” I ask him, tentatively taking another step forwards.

“It’s mostly dark. But I can see thin strips of light which I’m guessing is the outside world. I’m guessing the walls are made out of wood panels from what it feels like.” He answers, I can hear his fingers brushing against the wood. 

“And there are no….others?” I ask getting more and more confused with each second.

“Others? What do you mean others? There’s no one else here, at least not in this room or carriage or whatever? Am I on a train? It feels like a train.”

“Yeah, you’re in a train. Didn’t you know that? How did you even get in there? And by others I mean other people like you. Or things. I’m not quite sure.”

“I thought it was a train! Obviously I didn’t know that otherwise I wouldn’t have asked you, would I? And what do you mean “others like me”? What’s so different about me? How am I different to you?”

I can’t think of an answer to that one. How is he different to me? He can form sentences like me. It seems like he can think rationally and logically, based on how he worked out he was on a train. I suppose I had been so used to the fact that anything in this train was underdeveloped that I never guessed they could be anything like me. 

“I suppose you’re not different to me. But all the others in the trains just moan and scream when they come through. I guess I thought you’d be like them”

“What other trains? You mean another trains like this has come past here? Where are we anyway?”

“We’re in Area 42, where I live. And one other train? Try every week.”

“So you mean to say, that every week a train has come past your village-Area thing full of moaning and screaming people and you’ve never done anything about it?”

“If I could do something don’t you think I would? We get put in the restrainment block if we even mention it. What is one teenage boy meant to do about it?”

“Whoa, you get punished for talking about something? Talk about harsh. What is this crazy place you live in, it sounds like a fucking nuthouse.”

“Well where do you live? And I’m not sure I understood that word “fucking”?”

“I live, well lived I guess, in Fallwyn. And you don’t know what “fucking” means? What are your parents against swearing or something? Its bad word I suppose. I use it often but it’s considered bad by a lot of people. I’m actually not sure why.”

“What is a “Fallwyn”? Do you mean swearing like making a promise? Does   
“fucking” mean I promise or something?”

“Fallwyn is a place where I lived. Listen, this isn’t exactly the best time or place for me to explain swearing for you, but no, it’s not promising something. If you get me out of here I promise I’ll explain it to you. But Jesus Christ let’s get our priorities straight.”

“How do I know you won’t kill me if I let you out?”

“How do I know you won’t kill _me_ if you let me out?”

“Good point.”

I walk over to the carriage. Now that I think about it, it seems more like an oversized crate. I curl my fingers over the top of one of the wooden planks and pull as hard I can, I can feel it loosening as I tug even more. 

“Help me, see where one of the lines of light is blocked? That’s where my fingers are, start pushing the plank just under them.” I say to the voice.

I feel his fingers brush lightly over mine as he tries to find the right plank in the darkness. He finds the plank and starts to push. The fingers that he touched tingle slightly while I try to concentrate on getting this stupid plank off. Finally it comes off and I can see dirty hands. 

We manage to pry off about 3 planks, by this point I can see Dan’s face. He’s kind of…..cute. I’m not quite sure how to describe him, he has chocolaty brown eyes and hair to match. His hairstyle is similar to mine, long and straight with a floppy fringe. His face is covered in streaks of dust, mud and something that looks an awful lot like blood. From what I can see of his torso his clothes are in tatters, also covered in dust, mud and that browny/red substance. 

“Hey, are you okay?” I ask him, taking a break from pulling for a minute. 

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He replies, wiping his hands on his ripped jeans.

“Are you sure? Because your covered in muck and….blood? And your clothes look like they got attacked by a pair of a scissors.

“Oh yeah, the dirt is from the carriage, it’s filthy. My clothes were like this when I woke up and the blood was just there. I dont even know if it's mine or not."

I’m quite sure how to reply to that.

“Oh” I say not very intelligently.

I turn my head towards the front of the train and notice the slight hum of the engine I had failed to pick up while we were talking. Dan turns his head in the same direction and then quickly back at me. A silent message is conveyed through our eyes and we start to try and prise of the next boards as quickly as possible. The train starts to move slowly and I walk with Dan’s carriage, still trying to pull of the next wooden plank. Soon I’m jogging, still trying to stay with Dan. The carriage gets closer and closer to the entrance of the tunnel and I realise that I will have to make a decision. There’s no way we’ll get the plank off in time, I can either stop running and let the train go past and continue my life, the most logical choice since the other one would involve climbing through that hole, therefore putting all my trust and my whole life in the hands of a boy I’d only just met. Naturally me, being me, I decide to attempt to climb through the mini hole we’d made. 

As soon as Dan realises what I’m trying he tries to convince me not to:

“Jesus Christ! Get back! If you don’t make it in you’ll get squashed by the tunnel! Even if you do make it in time, why are you running away with a guy you just met?! Why are you throwing your life away for me?!” He practically screams.

“Shut up Dan. I know what I’m doing.” I mumble, managing to get my one leg through the small gap and trying to get my head through.

“No, you shut up. I’m not letting you do this. I barely know you, but I have enough common sense to know that it’s fucking stupid of you to abandon your life because some idiot got himself stuck on a train.”

I ignore him and silently praise myself as I get my head through.

“Hello!” I say grinning as my head popped into the carriage, only inches away from his. “No stopping me now.” I say cheerfully, pulling my upper-body into the carriage.

I place my leg on the wooden floor of the carriage and manage to fall ever so gracefully into a heap on top of Dan, knocking him over so we both ended up sitting on the floor. I hear the “whoosh” as the train enters the tunnel, going faster and faster.

“Just in time.” I say, still on Dan’s lap. I was in no hurry to move and it seemed he didn’t mind so we sat there for a while. Me staring at him, smug that my plan had worked, and him glaring back. 

After maybe one minute or so, I get up and decide to look around. I try to stand but find myself too tall for the room, so I bend a little. I can’t see much because of the fact that we’re in a tunnel, but it looks like a room big enough to hold maybe 5 people maximum, completely empty apart from us, and completely filthy. 

I turn a full 360 circle, taking it all in, before turning to Dan and saying:

“Well it’s not much, but it’ll do.”

Dan stares at me, no longer glaring, but more with a look of bewilderment. I sit down next to him, not exactly on his lap, but close enough.

I watch Dan as he struggles to form coherent words, grinning the whole time. 

Finally he decides on:

“What in god’s name was that?” 

“What was what?” I say innocently. “Do you mean the part where I basically gave up on my life to follow you on a train to god knows where or the part where I sat on your lap?”

“B-both!” Dan splutters, looking very flustered.

“Well I’m not quite sure why I’m here to be honest, it was a rash decision that I’ll probably regret tomorrow, but my life has been pretty boring so far, I crave adventure. And the lap thing was technically an accident.” I say, putting some exaggeration on the word technically. 

“You know you’ll regret it. You probably had a family and everything. Do you have a family? I know literally nothing about you. I don’t even know your name. Tell me your story.” Dan says, shifting a bit to make himself more comfortable. 

I wonder what happened to make me trust Dan so much, I consider not telling him anything about me, the less he know the better right? But since I’m stuck with him on a trains for god knows how long I suppose I might as well tell him about my life so far. I rest my head on his shoulder, thinking about where to begin. Dan leans his head on top of mine and I begin to speak:

“I’m Phil. I was born 17 years ago in Area 42. I have a mother and a father and a little sister, Tina. I love Tina a lot, she’s probably the person I’ll miss the most. She’s 10, but she’s one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met; she’s not clever in a book way, but you could say she’s a “people” person. She always immediately knows what you’re talking about and understands. If you want to have a light conversation about something like the weather, she’s fine with that, and if you want to talk about anything important or want her opinion on anything, she’s okay with that as well. 

My father works for the leader. I’m not quite sure what he does but it’s important, at least that’s what he tells us. My mother doesn’t work, but sometimes she’ll do the washing for our neighbours, or run errands for the richer people. Together we don’t make much, but we make enough. Me and Tina share a bed and mother and father do too. 

Sometimes, on a good day, mother will take us to the market and let us choose something small to keep. Tina always understands that she can’t have the expensive doll or new dress, so she’ll choose something cheap, like a hairclip or a bracelet. I’d usually choose the cheapest thing there, I always feel so guilty for wasting precious money on things I don’t need.”

I look over to Dan, expecting him to be asleep or something, I wasn’t exactly making my life sound interesting. But I’m surprised to find him looking at me with fascination in the dim light of the carriage. I continue:

“I like to learn-“

Dan interrupts me with an incredulous look and says:

“You _like_ school?! Wow you’re weird.”

I shoot him a fake offended look and explain myself:

“I don’t like school in itself, I just want to know everything. Like aren’t you the slightest bit curious as to why you’re here, where we’re going, etc.?”

“Well of course I’m curious, but there’s no-one here who’s going to tell us and worrying about isn’t going to make things better, so I just tend to let things go.”

“I suppose that makes sense, but I can’t get my mind to shut up, I _have_ to know. Otherwise I’ll go crazy, I probably already am.”

“Okay, I kinda get that, in a way. Carry on with your story, it’s quite interesting.”

I look at him incredulously, my life isn’t interesting, at least I find it boring as hell. But I carry on talking anyway:

“Every day I used to go to the train tracks just to look at them, just to see the train, imagine where it’s going. There are things in the train. It’s kinda creepy. You don’t ever see their faces, you just hear them screaming or moaning, like zombies. And sometimes you’ll see a dirty hand or leg or _something_ poking out of the carriages. Everyone’s scared of the trains, except for me. I just want to know!” I basically scream. 

“I’m sick and tired of feeling stupid! I want to know what those things are! I want to know where the hell they’re going, what they’re going to do there, why they can’t or won’t talk, how they even got on the bloody train in the first hand. Which explains why I’m so interested in you. Somehow, you’re different, you weren’t screaming or moaning, you seem able to communicate fine, you seem clever, you look……more than fine.” I say, blushing a little. 

“Why are you different? If you’re different why are you on the train? Why is everything so bloody confusing?!” I yell, than give out a sigh of defeat and lean my head onto Dan’s shoulder. I feel tired, either from the tirade I just went on or just the general weird-ness of the day. 

I feel Dan turn his head towards me and say:

“If I knew, Phil, I would tell you. But I don’t, and neither do you and until we arrive somewhere we’re not going to find out.”

I nod my head and slump more against Dan, making myself comfortable. 

Dan doesn’t say anything and neither do I. We sit like that for a while, me staring at the hole we left by pulling out the wooden planks. After a while, Dan’s breaths turn into little snores and I realise he’s fallen asleep. It must be only 6 pm back at home, yet I feel sleepy. I close my eyes and let drowsiness the sleep wash away my consciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: anxiety/panic attack
> 
> Art here: https://31.media.tumblr.com/9c7e54d9a763a9de9f09ee91a723b51e/tumblr_n1kxvy6XhK1s5v8f6o1_500.png  
> Done by the amazing moreorlester.tumblr.com

When I open my eyes the first thing I notice is that we are no longer in the tunnel. I am practically lying on Dan, my head on his shoulder and his head on mine. I gently nudge his head up and pull mine away. Dan opened his eyes and looks around drowsily.

“Good morning” I say, stretching my arms and yawning.

“Yeah, morning.” Dan says, before lying back down and closing his eyes again.

“Are you kidding me? Are you just going to go back to sleep?” I say poking his stomach playfully.

“Mmmm… Sleep, yeah. Shh.” He says without opening his eyes.

“I take it you’re not a morning person” 

I say and roll my eyes. I stand up, before remembering that I am too small for the carriage and banging my head on the ceiling, loudly. This causes Dan to mumble:

“Shut up Phil. I’m tryna sleep here.”

“Lovely how you’re so worried about my well-being.” I say sarcastically over my shoulder. No reply from Dan. I walk over to the hole and poke my head out, trying to make sense of our surroundings. All I see are fields. The grass is all brown and dead, it looks like it hasn’t rained in years. I look to my right, where the train came from and, far in the distance, there are some green fields. I look left and just see more dead fields.

“Looks like we’re headed to a wonderful place.” I mumble sarcastically.

I walk back to Dan and sit on the ground. Dan looks over at me as I bury my head in my hands, the realization of what I did last night hitting me. Seeing that out of the window finally made me see sense, seeing where we’re headed makes me think about the life I left behind. Sure it wasn’t perfect and maybe it felt unsatisfying for me, but it was safe, I was content, I knew what was going to happen the next day. Now, I have no idea what’s going to happen. There is obviously something very wrong with the way we live, I’ve known that for ages, but I never thought I would ever do anything except live my life in Area 42, never knowing what was going happen next. Now who knows, Dan and I could walk out and be shot straight away, we could be driving straight into a trap. It’s obvious that the trains aren’t going anywhere pleasant, and now I’m going there too.

I feel Dan’s hand on my shoulder:

“Hey, are you okay?” He says softly, no longer with the sleepy tone.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” I run my hands through my hair quickly and look at Dan. His face is filled with concern.

“Seriously, I’m fine. Just thinking about….home.” 

“I told you you’d regret it. Why did you even climb in? What made you do it? I don’t understand you, Phil.”

“I’ve always wanted to know where the trains go and that was my chance. Plus, there was something about you that drew me in, I don’t want it was, but I felt like I could immediately trust you, as cheesy as that sounds. I just didn’t think, at the time, that I might never go back”

Dan nudges his head into my shoulder and says:

“I’m sorry, if I hadn’t have turned up, if I hadn’t have been different to the other, just been another drooling zombie, this would never have happened.”

“Dan, this isn’t your fault, I was the one who decided to come with you, you can’t blame yourself.”

Dan lets out a small sigh. We sit like that for a while, me sitting with my back against the wooden wall, my arms around my knees, Dan in the same position with his head resting on my shoulder. Minutes pass, maybe even hours. I realise I am happy to sit here all day, even though I’m still sad about possibly never going back, something feels right about sitting here with Dan. 

After a while Dan spoke up:

“I don’t even know your last name, I barely know anything about you.”

“Lester, Phil Lester.”, I say, smiling slightly.

Dan lifts his head from my shoulder and holds out his hand.

“I’m Dan Howell, nice to meet you Mr Lester.”

I laugh and shake my head, putting on a serious face:

“Oh how very formal Mr Howell. And might I say, you look absolutely dashing today, my good sir.”

Dan grins before answering:

“Why I shall return the compliment Mr Lester.” 

Dan brings my hand towards his mouth and kisses it lightly, before looking up at me and winking. A blush creeps up my face, making Dan grin even  
harder. 

Dan spins himself from where he was sitting next to me, so that he’s cross-legged, facing me.

“Right, since we have nothing better to do, let’s play Truth or Dare.”

“Truth or Dare? What’s that?” I ask, perplexed.

“Wait, you can’t actually be suggesting that you don’t know what Truth or Dare is?”, without waiting for a reply Dan carries on: 

“Truth or Dare might be the best and worst game ever invented. Truth or Dare can be immensely fun, but also the most embarrassing awkward thing ever.”

“Would you get to the point and explain how this game, which obviously gives you mixed feelings, even works?” I ask.

“It’s pretty simple really, I ask you ‘Truth or Dare?’ and you choose one. So, truth or dare?”

“Uh, truth?” I ask, having no idea where this is going.

“Okay so now I ask you a question and you have to answer honestly, no matter what the question. Understood?” Dan looks deadly serious.

“Understood” I nod.

“So my question is: if you could have any superpower, what would it be?”

“Probably being able to fly, as boring as an answer that is, or maybe being able to teleport, that’s be cool.”

“Okay good, so now you ask me.”

“Truth or dare?”

“Dare. Now you have to say something that I have to do.” 

“Oh god, I don’t know what to say. I dare you to…...ummmmm. I dare you to lick the wall.”

“That’s disgusting, but not too bad for a first dare.” Dan says, as he stands up, having to duck slightly, and walks towards the wall. He looks back at me, pulls a face and turns his head back towards the wall. Slowly he stick his tongue out licks the wall slightly.

“Urgh, wood is _not_ a nice taste.” He says, before sitting back down opposite me.

“Right, my turn. Truth or Dare, Phil?” He smirks.

“Truth.” I say, because I don’t trust that expression, any truth could be better than whatever dare he had in my mind.

“Fine.” He says with a pout. “But that’s okay, cos although I had an _amazing_ dare in mind, I have many questions about you too. My question is: Who and how was your first kiss?”

I look to the floor and twiddle nervously with my sleeve.

“Um, don’t laugh, but I’ve actually never kissed anyone.”

I glance up to see Dan’s reaction. He’s smiling slightly, but not in an unkind way.

“I’d never laugh, I’ve only kissed this one girl, and it was just a peck a couple years ago. It was kind of disgusting if I’m honest.”

“Oh okay.”

I glance at Dan’s lips, they look so….kissable. I try to push the thoughts out of my head. I doubt he even likes me that way. I don’t even know if I like him that way. I mean it would explain why I gave up my life for him. I basically ran away with him, it sounds a lot more romantic than it actually was. 

I see Dan leaning in slightly and start to panic a little bit. What if he wanted to kiss me? I felt like a wanted to kiss him. But what if I’m a horrible kisser? I’ve never had any practice, I don’t even know what to do. Do I just do nothing and let him do whatever it is you do, do I move my lips? 

I find myself leaning in too, because as nervous as I am, I want to kiss him as well. Our faces are only a couple of centimetres apart when he whispers:

“You’ve never kissed anyone, and I’m a someone. So who am I to deny you  
the experience of a first kiss?”

He smiles and leans in, connecting our lips. His lips are soft and he tastes slightly like vanilla. Half of my mind is wondering whether I’m doing it right, but mostly all I can think about is Dan. His lips, his smell, his soft cheek, which my hand reaches up to touch without me even realising I’m doing it.

Dan smiles into the kiss and his hands go to my hair. The moment is so perfect I don’t want it to end, but everything has to end. We pull apart a little and I look into Dan’s brown eyes. He’s still smiling when he says:

“So how was your first kiss?” 

“Um….wow”, is all I manage to get out.

“God you’re so adorable.” He says, before leaning in and kissing me again.

We kiss for a couple more seconds before pulling apart again. I giggle and lean my forehead into Dan’s shoulder. 

“Well, back to truth or dare?” I hear Dan say. How can he think of that stupid game at a time like this, after what had just happened. 

I straighten myself and hear myself saying:

“Sure”

“It was your turn right? I’m not quite sure, I got…..distracted.

“Um me too. I’ll go. Truth or dare?”

“Truth”

“Who was _your_ first kiss? You said it was some girl, I want every  
detail.”

“Ah well, it all begins one day after school. This girl, Stacey, followed me out of the classroom and spun me around and kissed me without any permission from my said. Naturally I socked in the face.”

“You didn’t!” I gasp.

“Yeah I did. But since I was about 12 it probably didn’t hurt.”

“Probably?”

“Probably.” He replies, grinning from ear to ear.

“How impolite, how absolutely rude. I would have expected better from you.”  
I joked

I don’ know what it is about Dan, but it’s so easy to talk to him. We can go from kissing one second to joking around the next. I just somehow click with him, as cheesy as that sounds.

We spend the rest of the day talking and getting to know each other better. The game of Truth or Dare dies out and soon the sun is setting.

Dan had been quite for a while when I break the silence:

“Where do you think we’re going Dan?”

“Hell, if I knew. I don’t think it’s somewhere nice though.”

“Why?”

“Think about Phil, those things you’ve told me about, the fact that you aren’t  
allowed to address them. Why is your country or government or whatever trying to cover this up? Wouldn’t it be easier to give an explanation? No matter how vague, surely explaining these things would quell the rumours more than trying to pretend the trains don’t exist. Obviously whatever is this “secret” operation thing is it isn’t good. And now we’re stuck in the middle of it”

I’m not sure what to say. Everything he said makes perfect sense, but I never thought of it like that. Probably because I grew up with it, I’ve never noticed how flawed our system is.

“I’m scared, Dan.”

“Me too. But we’re stuck now, we can’t get out. How long has it been since you last ate. A day or so? If we even managed to get out off of this trains without killing ourselves in the process, what would we do? There’s no food or water for miles, we’d starve, our only chance is to hope we don’t get killed as soon as we get off this train and that they have food and water.”

“But how long as it been since you ate? How long have you even been on this train? How the hell did you get here?”

“I have no idea, the last thing I remember is going home after school. But I don’t ever remember arriving home.”

“What so you were just taken?”

“I guess so.”

“How long were you on the train before you met me?”

“I’m not sure, a day or so.”

“So you haven’t eaten for two days _at least_. God knows how long you were unconscious.”

“Yup.”

“Jesus Christ Dan, what have we gotten ourselves into.”

“Hell if I knew. But there’s no going back now.”

Suddenly the train bumps and rattles around. The journey had mostly been smooth with the occasional bump, but nothing like that was. I stand up and walk over to the hole in the wall that has acted as a window. I look back at Dan, who is sitting on the ground, an anxious look on his face. I slowly poke my head out and quickly stick it back in when I realise that there are figures up ahead.

“There are people there!” I hiss at Dan, whose eyes widen and quickly stand up to go over to me.

“What are we gonna do?” Dan whispers back.

“How the hell should I know?” I say, harsher than I mean to.

The train slows and rolls lazily to a stop just in front of the figures which I can now make out. They seem to be humanoid but covered from head to toe in black armour. Some carried guns, other didn’t.

I grab Dan’s shirt and pull him and myself down under the gap so the things couldn’t see us. I realise that this is pointless as we hit the ground, since they could easily see us if they stuck their head into the carriage. 

“This the empty one then?” I hear a gruff voice say. 

Dan and I are crouching on the ground, breathing heavily, with our faces the same distance apart as when we were playing truth or dare. I glance at Dan’s lips, desperately wanting to kiss him again. I will myself to snap out of, now is probably the worst time to start making out. 

“Yeah, ‘parently. Dunno why it’s empty though. But we got orders from the boss, roll it into storage.” Someone says, before the train starts again and rolls slowly on.

Dan and I stay down until everything goes black. 

“We must’ve entered that “storage” place they were talking about.” I whisper.  
Dan seems to have frozen. He grabs the front of my grubby T-Shirt and whispers:

“Phil, what are we gonna do?”

“Let’s just stay here until we’re sure no-ones out there and then we can go and see where we are. And hopefully get some food.” I say, poking Dan’s stomach, trying to get him to loosen up.

We stay low in the carriage. Slowly my eyes adjust to the darkness and I can make out the outline of Dan’s face. His eyes are wide and his face is full of fear. I can hear his breath start to pick up.

“No, no, no, not now, not now.” He says in between short breaths. I don’t understand what’s happening. He starts to shake a little and his grip on my T-shirt strengthens. 

“Dan, what’s happening, are you alright? What’s going on?” I whisper-scream  
at him. I have no idea how to react to his panic. 

“I’m. Having. A. Panic. Attack.” He whispers, burying his head into my T-shirt.  
I don’t know what that is, but I can put two and to together, I know what panic is and I’m guessing a panic attack isn’t a good thing. I don’t know what to do so in an attempt to calm him down I grab his face gently and pull it away from my chest. My hands cup his cheeks and I look into his eyes as I gently say:

“Dan. Listen to me. You need to calm down.” 

He looks at me with an expression that says ‘if I could calm down, don’t you think I would’ve by now?’ I ignore the look and continue:

“Breathe okay? Just breathe with me. In………..Out………..In………..Out…” 

It carries on like that for a couple of minutes and slowly Dan’s stops trembling and his breaths become more regulated. Even after he seems to have calmed down, we stay like that, my hands cupping his face and him staring into my eyes. His face is covered with grime, like my hands, but his eyes are still bright and that beautiful brown colour. I move my face closer to his and lightly press my lips against his. We stay like that, neither one of us goes to deepen the kiss, but we don’t need to, it’s perfect.

Finally, Dan pulls away and looks at the ground:

“I, uhm, sorry about that.”

“No need, it’s fine seriously.”, I reply before slowly standing up and looking around carefully

“There’s no-one here. Let’s go.” I say to Dan. He stands up and we both clamber out of the train.

The room is a massive and chilly. I go to put my arms around myself, before thinking better of it and grabbing Dan and putting my arm around him instead.

“It’s cold, we need to save body heat.” I say as an excuse. I doubt he buys it, but he grins at me nevertheless.

I scan my surroundings, looking for any movement. The last thing I want right now is to get caught. I glance upward and notice how truly colossal the room is. It’s more like a cavern. 

I pull on Dan and we start to move forward cautiously, weaving in between the many other train carriages in the hall. It’s hard to tell much about where we are, it’s too dark. 

Dan and I move toward the only light source which is coming from a small doorway across the room from the carriage we were in. We walk between the carriages slowly and silently, huddling together. After about five minutes of walking we reach the doorway.

I glance behind and try to locate our carriage, I can’t see it, or maybe I can I just don’t know where it is.

I feel a small sense of leaving safety, that wooden crate was where me and Dan lived for a day, once we’re through this door there’s no going back. Who am I kidding? There hasn’t been any going back since I got on the train.

I’m still staring into the darkness when Dan pulls me against the wall next to the door. We stand with our backs to the wall, when I hear voices coming from the doorway. I fumble around with my hand and grab Dan’s. He shoots a reassuring look at me. How has it gone from me calming him down, to him comforting me?

The voices are too low to make out what they’re saying, but they’re definitely growing louder, which means we’re going to have company soon. 

“What do you mean the empty train has a hole? That’s impossible!” An angry, gruff voice shouts.

“Well you see sir, it’s less of a hole and more like someone prised off a couple of planks therefore creating the, ehm, hole.” A quieter, more nervous voice said.

“Do I look like a give a damn about the technicalities of the hole? All I want to know is who made it.”

“Yes, sir, we’ll find that out right away, sir. The whole station is being searched from top to bottom by our best men.”

“Only the station? _If_ someone was in that carriage, unauthorized I might add, then they obviously had a plan, if they had a plan they’re obviously going to get on with it, and depending on what this plan consists of they could miles away from the station by now and already close to base. Your men will search everywhere, everywhere you hear? I will not condone trespassing. If they found anything out, think of what would happen, they could do anything with the information. Our empire could crumble. It’s your responsibility to make sure it doesn’t. Good day.”

I hear the footsteps of the man walking away, the other man seems to have stopped just by our door. I squeeze Dan’s hand, I’m basically shaking of fear. Finally, after muttering a bit under his breaths, the second man walks away. I wait a few seconds before breathing again.  
“Let’s go.” Dan says to me, and pulls me towards the doorway. We stand on the just before the doorway and check that there’s no-one there, before going on.

We’re in a long bright corridor, the walls are white and shiny. I look both right and left, but I can’t see an end either way, it just seems to go on. It reminds me of the medical centre back home, where I once ended up after falling down the tree I climb on the way to school. 

“Which way?” I whisper to Dan.  
Instead of answering, Dan turns to the right and starts to shuffle down the corridor. I follow him, taking care not to tread to loud or make a lot of noise. We pass lots of doors on either side of us, but Dan doesn’t make a move to enter one of them and I just follow him. Dan seems so sure of where’s he’s going, as if he knew exactly where everything is, which is impossible, since he’s never been here before, right? I start to get even more nervous than I was before. Dan picks up his pace, he seems to have forgotten that we have to be quiet. He’s basically jogging, still holding my hand, when I stop and pull him back with me.

“What?” he 

“Dan where are we going? Why are you running? Why are you acting as if you know where we are?” I say, getting more suspicious of him by the second.  
Dan looks at the ground guiltily and my head immediately runs through a million different scenarios from that Dan is secretly a spy sent to capture to that he’s a robot that’s going self-destruct in 5 seconds and will blow me up.

“Okay so this is going to sound crazy. But I recognise this place.” Dan says while scratching the nape of his neck.

“What do you mean you recognise this place?” I hiss, horrified.

“I don’t know.” He hisses back in the same tone I used. “It just seems familiar, I don’t remember ever being here, yet I know where to go. Well not really where to go, more I know where I went last time.”

“You just said you were never here.”

“No, I said I don’t remember ever being here. I don’t remember a lot of things, there are big gaps in my life. I know I moved to Fallwyn when I was 10 but I don’t know where I was before that. My parents wouldn’t answer my questions. So I took the hint, I never brought up the subject again. But this is so familiar, maybe I was here, I don’t know. All I know is that if I was here, I was in the room through that door up there.” Dan points at a door about 10 meters from where we’re standing.

“Okay then.” I breathe. “Let’s go.”

“That’s all you’ve got to say? I tell you I think I was here before and you just say ‘let’s go’?” 

“Well, the easiest way to find out is to go through that door and see what’s there isn’t it?

We continue down the hallway, considerably slower than before, until we reach the door.

“Ready?” I murmur to Dan.

“Yeah.” He answers.

He goes to open the door, before my hand rushes out and stops him. He looks at me expectantly, searching for an explanation.

“What if there’s someone standing right behind that door? Don’t push it wide open.” I say and let go of his hand.

Dan pushes the handle down and opens the door a crack.


	3. Chapter 3

Dan peers in and lets out a small gasp. I can’t see anything since his head is in the way. Burning with curiosity, I stand on my toes and place my head above his so I can see through the crack as well.

At first my eyes don’t make out what I see, since it’s darker in this room than the bright corridor. As my eyes adjust I let out a gasp not too dissimilar to Dan’s. The room is quite big and dark, a little light coming through five small windows is the only light source. But what shocks me the most is what’s in the room. There are little pens, like the ones you’d keep animals in, dotted all over the room, around twenty of them at most. And in each pen are about ten are around ten humans, if you could call them humans. They look exactly like things in the trains, dirty and bloody. As we open the door a little more a couple of them make a hissing noise and cover their eyes from the light, like vampires. But vampires don’t exist and these things definitely do. 

I focus on one of them, it appears to be a little girl, she must be six at the most. Her hair is like a rats nest, with leaves and mud in it, her eyes are glassy and unfocused. She’s staring at the wall opposite her and sitting cross-legged on the ground. In the same pen as her are what must be her mother and father and maybe a couple of relatives. They all have the same distant eyes. 

My eyes dart to another pen where mostly adults sit. I glance this time, not at their appearance, but a thing tube that seems to be connecting the people to a container sitting in the middle of the room. My eyes focus more on the tubes and I notice a light blue substance moving from the container to the persons arm. I check the arm of everyone in the room, they all have the same tube. That and the glassy stare, combined with how almost none of them reacted to the door opening except to hide from the light and how they’re all just sitting there staring at nothing, well it doesn’t take a detective to work out what’s wrong with them.

“They’ve been drugged.” I whisper to Dan. 

He tears his eyes from the horrible sight to look at me. 

His voice is full of fear when he whispers back: “Why do I remember this place? Was I here? Was I one of…one of _them_ ?” 

“I don’t know Dan, but I want to leave. I don’t like it here. It’s freaking me out. And picturing you sitting there all drugged up… Let’s go.” I grab his arm and go walk back into the corridor.

“Phil! We can’t just leave them there. We can’t.” Dan says, shaking my hand off his arm.

“What can we do? Even if we do manage to get them out of there, they’re not going to want to go anywhere, don’t you see? They’re so drugged up they’d probably stay there, it’s the perfect plan, they can never escape, they’re literally trapped inside their own minds.” I whisper, horrified at my own words.

“Maybe we can’t get them to escape, but we can stop the drug going into them. If they stop getting the drug it’ll wear off eventually, and if we open the pens, when they’re sober, they can escape themselves.”

“Good idea. Now let’s do it quickly before anyone checks on them. You unlock the pens I’ll try and stop the machine that gives out the drug” 

I start to move forward, Dan follows me and the door swings shut. Without the light from the corridor streaming in, it’s hard to see much. Dan begins to walk around the room, unlocking pens. I walk over to the big, white container that obviously stores the weird light blue drug. I crouch down and look for a control panel or an off switch. I don’t see one. All I see is the place where all the tubes connect to the container and the rest is empty. No buttons, no touchscreen, nothing. I circle the container looking desperately for anything to stop the drug flowing, with no results. Finally, with no options left, I grab the tubes and rip the out of the container. 

I managed to successfully stop the people getting the drug, but now the blue liquid is spilling all over the dirty, wet mud that covers the ground. There’s nothing to block the flow. I look around and spot Dan by the door, having already completed his part of the plan. His looks at the blue stuff spilling everywhere wide-eyed. He motions for me to come anyway, so I turn my back on the container and scurry towards Dan. Eventually the blue drug will run out and be all over the floor, so that the person who finds the mess can’t just reattach the tubes again.

I reach the door and Dan grabs my hand. He opens the door and together we run out. We pelt down the corridor and I am unsure if we are heading back towards the hall with the trains of further on. Frankly, I don’t care. All I want to do is get away from the people with the dead eyes. 

After running for what feels like ages, we finally slow down to a stop. We lean against the wall panting, yet still holding hands. 

“You ok?” I ask, looking into Dan’s eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” He answers, dismissively.

“No you’re not. Don’t lie. You must be at least as freaked out as me, and   
considering the circumstance you’re most definitely more. Do you think you were one of those?”

“I don’t know, I don’t remember anything. But snippets are coming back. I remember sitting somewhere, everything is hazy, as if I were in a dream, or drugged.” He stumbles on the last word.

“Listen Dan, it doesn’t matter whether or not you were one of them. Even if you were, you got out somehow, you’re here with me. You’re not drugged and you’re not being controlled, you are your own person.” I say, grabbing his shoulders.

“But how do I know this isn’t all a dream my drugged-self made up. How do I know this isn’t all in my head. I always used to dream of adventure, and now I’m on one with a cute guy and it’s too good, it’s too unbelievable! This would never happen to me in real life!” Dan practically screamed.

“This is real. You’re real and I’m real. We’re really here and we’re really in danger. You aren’t dreaming. I’ll prove it.” 

I lean in and kiss him, not soft. I kiss him hard and passionately, at first all I want is to make him believe that it’s real, that I’m real. But after three seconds of kissing all I want is him. My fingers go to his hair and his hands snake around my hips. I close my eyes and melt into the kiss. I press my tongue lightly to Dan’s lips and he moans slightly as my tongue slips inside his mouth. Dan’s lips are chapped yet feel right pressed against mine. We continue to kiss for god knows how long, finally though we pull apart. My hands are around his neck and his around my waist, everything feels perfect. 

We stare into the others eyes for a couple of seconds before I hear voices from down the hall to my right. We quickly let go of each other and start to walk fast in the opposite direction. The voices are moving fast, I grab Dan’s hand and we run. We run until we hear footsteps from up ahead. We’re cornered. I don’t know what to do. I’m frozen. Dan quickly pulls me toward the nearest door and drags me in. We close the door lightly and turn to face each other. 

“That was so close.” I say.

Dan starts to giggle, I look at him incredulously. 

“What the hell do you find funny about that? We could’ve been killed!”

“It’s just our make out session was interrupted by something dangerous. How fucking clichéd is that?” Dan chuckles.

I continue to stare at him like he’s crazy until he calms down. I turn to face the room.

It’s smaller than the one with the things in it. This one looks more like an office. There are about ten monitors covering one wall with a desk below them with a keyboard. The rest of the room is empty except for a chair. No clock on the wall, no window, no plant or anything. The walls are the same white as the corridor. 

I walk over to the monitors and Dan follows. My eyes flicker from screen to screen, not making sense of anything until they rest on one screen with what looks like a map of our country.

All the 100 Areas are marked in black and but what immediately catches my attention are two big red dots. I search for Area 42 on the map and find it easily due to many tedious geography lessons in school. The first red do is to the left is Area 42 and the other one is to the right of it. The train tracks are also pictured on the map, they run from one red dot to the other. The red dot on the right is pulsating slightly. I go to touch it, guessing that the screen is touchscreen, you barely every get anything else nowadays. As I tap the red dot to the right of Area 42, a little box appears next to it saying: 

_“Base 2. Omega. Test subjects are drugged and/or disposed of here. For more information tap here.”_

Dan says from behind me: 

“That must be those things in the pens, the drugged ones. This is a place where they either drug them so much they don’t know who or where they are or just kill them. This place is disgusting. How dare they? How dare they kidnap random people from their lives? How dare they waste a human life? These people are sick!”

“Dan, I don’t think they’re chosen at random...” 

My attention had been caught by the screen I was now studying intently. It has a dark blue background and light blue text and that’s small and difficult to read, but it seems to some sort of official document. I tap the screen and a title appears:

_“Decree to stop individuality, therefore stopping discrimination.”_

I scan the document, there are many words I don’t understand but I get the gist of it.

“Dan, they didn’t randomly take people from their lives. This is a law passed a couple of hundred years ago to stop people thinking differently. It says that people with their own opinions and thoughts should be controlled and diminished. I think…I think those people we saw were people who thought differently, people who rebelled against the system. They were drugged so heavily that they lost everything they used to be. I’m guessing the ones that didn’t forget their opinions got killed.”

Dan just stares at me, he is speechless. I turn my attention to a different monitor, this one solely containing a list of names. I scroll through them, recognising none until I reach the end. 

_“Phil Lester”_ is written there, the last name on the list. I tap my name and a little box appears.

_“Reason: suspicion of trains. Status: Not yet captured.”_

They had been planning to take me too, because I started to suspect the trains. I stand in shock, not moving a muscle. I realise how much danger I am in right now, they wanted to take me anyway, how happy will they be if they find me already here. Dan hear a sharp intake of breath behind me and startle, before looking back and realising Dan has just read my name.

“Phil. Phil, we have to go _now_.” 

Dan grabs my wrist and tries to pull me back towards the door, but I don’t move. I just keep staring at my name on the list of either dead or brain-dead people. I realise how close I was to being taken, how lucky it is that I go on that godforsaken train. I thought my problems started when the train stopped just outside of Area 42. But my problems run way deeper than that. 

“No.” I whisper. “No, I’m not going. I’m not letting this continue.” I say, louder this time.

Dan just stares at me. I sit on the chair and pull up the keyboard. I enter the word “Fallwyn”.

“First things first.” I say. “I want to find out what this whole thing has to do with where you come from.”

_”1 result found”_ I tap the link and it takes me to another map, this time more zoomed out. I see each Area, and a little to the left of the circle of Areas is a small, pulsating red dot. I tap the dot.

_Fallwyn – small colony, to be left alone. No threat. To be ignored and cut off from our world.”_

I try to search for a reason as to why it is there or why they’re ignoring it. Why is the country that drugs people who think differently ignoring something that is obviously different. I dig for any other information related to Fallwyn and find none.

I give up on Fallwyn, and start searching for a way to shut it down. I want to shut the whole system down, but I don’t know how. I’ve never been that good with computers, I know and to work one simply but not well enough. I give up and spin around in my chair to look at Dan:

“Hey, Dan. You any good with computers?”

Dan, who had been staring intently at the screens from behind my shoulders, answered:

"I'm alright. Why?"

"I want to bring it down, I want to shut down the whole system. I want this to stop." I gestured at the screen with the names on it. 

"Phil, you can't just shut down a massive operation like this by pressing a couple if buttons. Even if i could figure out how to work this thing, the most i could do was shut everything down until someone else re-activates it from a different location." Dan says helplessly. 

"Can't you figure out a way to shut it down forever?" I reply desperately. 

"I could try, but I highly doubt it'd work." Dan says. I feel like he knows he   
can't do anything and he's only saying for that my benefit. 

I get up off the chair and gesture for Dan to sit. He does hesitantly and rests his fingers on the keyboard. 

Over the next hour or do i watch Dan work. Occasionally i will check the hallway to see if anyone's coming this way. Sometimes voices will walk past the door and both Dan and I will get mini-heart attacks. But mostly i sit on the ground cross-legged and watch Dan as he concentrates. I lost him ages ago, i tried to keep up with what he was doing, but the screens were flickering so fast with unrecognizable code. Instead of looking at the screens i concentrate on Dan. His tongue is poking out slightly and his hands fly over the keyboard so fast they're almost a blur. Occasionally he'll groan or let out annoyed sounds but mostly we sit in silence apart from the tapping of the keyboard.

Finally, after what feels like forever, Dan leans back with a smug look on his face. 

"Did you do it?" I say hopefully. 

"I haven't done exactly what you wanted, but I've done close enough." Dan replies. He spins his chair around to face me and begins to explain:

"The first thing i did was stop anyone getting drugged by shutting down every machine that carries the drug. Now if they want to restart the drugs they'll have to manually go to every container, which they have the men and time to do so its technically only a temporary thing. But hopefully if my plan works they won't do that."

"What plan?" 

"Basically I am shutting down everything. All the so-called 'restrainment blocks' have been opened. All the power in the Areas has been shut down. The whole country has stopped and they’re all looking for an explanation. That's where you come in." Dan grins. 

"What do you mean that's where I come in? I told you I’m rubbish with computers i can’t do anything of use." I say. 

"Yeah but you're good with people. I’m horrible at talking to people i don’t know, I mess up my words and mumble."

"No, you don't. You were the one who kissed me, you are the confident one! I’m meant to be the shy one."

"The reason i acted so confident with is because i was internally terrified. You were all amazing and kind and i was all urgh. You're really the one that’s good with people."

I go to say something about how he's wrong, but Dan shushes me.

"No, shut up. I’m still explaining my plan. So everything in every Area has stopped and they’re all looking for an explanation. I can broadcast you to every screen in the country, excluding Fallwyn of course, and you are going to explain what happened."

"What?! No, no way. I can't talk to every single person in the country!"

"But that's the beauty of it. You won't be talking to millions of people you'll be talking to a camera and me."

"But can’t they trace the signal back to us? What if they come storming in in the middle of it?"

"I can easily block the signal. And I’m pretty sure they have a lot of white rooms so they won't recognise where we are. We've got to act quickly though, in about 5 minutes they'll realise something is wrong and will try to fix it. I've obviously done some protection so they can't fix it right away. But it's not permanent. So hurry up, think of something."

"Okay, okay I’m thinking."

I don't actually remember explicitly saying I'd do it, but here i am. I get up start rapidly pacing the room, rehearsing lines in my head. 

"You ready, Phil?" Dan asks after a couple of minutes. "We gotta go now." 

"Okay, okay, I can do this." I say, more to myself than Dan. 

Dan walks over to me and kisses me quickly on the lips. I immediately calm down. He pulls away and whispers:

"Yes, you can do this. As cheesy as this sounds, i believe in you. Okay now stand there. The camera is right there, just look in it and talk."

Dan points to a lens next to one of the screens. He moves out of sight, to the side and begins to count down. 

"3...2...1...Go"

I give the camera one of my best smiles and swallow my fear. 

"Hi, so you're probably who the hell i am."

I can imagine my sister seeing me on the screen at her school and my father seeing me on the tinny TV in his office. Maybe my mother went to the square when the power went out and is watching me on the massive screen there.   
Did they miss me? Are they happy or annoyed to see me?

I clear my throat and carry on:

"You're also probably wondering why the power went out. Also you may not have noticed, or maybe you have, I don't know, that the restrainment blocks are open and criminals are running around everywhere. Your leader hasn't been honest about what's going on in this country. Did you know people were being drugged and killed right in from of your eyes. Don t you guys ever wonder about the trains? The ones that go through Area 42 and others. The ones we're forbidden to talk about. I always used to wonder, until one day i ended up on one. Now i know what really happens with the trains and the things they carry. I think it’s about time you guys found as well."

I tell the camera everything. I talk for what feels like hours, i explain everything that has happened to me. Leaving out some bits about Dan of course. I explain about how the leader stamps out originality. By the time I’m done talking my voice is hoarse. 

"I’m sure there’s more to it but that's all i know. I’m out. Bye." 

Dan takes this as his cue to turn the camera off. He walks over to me and hugs me. 

"You were amazing. Well done. Now there's no way anyone will still go along with anything the leader says. Everything will start thinking for themselves. And they can't drug or kill everyone, can they? There'll probably be riots and stuff, but who cares. They deserve to know the truth."

We hug each other until we hear voices from the corridor. This time they're louder, its people shouting and heavy footsteps. Dan begins to pull me behind the door. But I don't let him. Let the guards find us. Let them bring us to the leader, I'd like to talk to him anyway. 

Heavily armed guards burst into the room and grab us immediately. When Dan sees that i don’t resist he stops struggling. He shoots me a questioning look that i ignore. 

The guards escort us further down the long, white hallway. Until we reach another door, this one more grand and expensive-looking than all the other I've seen. 

One of them knocks and i hear a buzz and click and the door swings open to a reveal a room similar-sized to the one with the screens. But this room is plush and grand. It looks like an office with a mahogany desk and two chairs in front of it. The guards push us roughly into the two plain, wooden chairs. The floor is lined with thick, red carpet and the walls are painted light yellow. There are no pictures hanging anywhere and the only decoration i can see is a potted-plant in one corner. The desk is empty except for some paper, a pencil and a closed laptop. The man sitting behind the desk is a fat, bald and wearing an expensive suit.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't our little hacker and his friend." He says, trying to act calm but i can see how aggravated he is. 

"Oh actually I didn't hack anything. Dan did all the work, i just talked a bit, you see." 

"How...lovely." He says. 

We sit in silence, both waiting for the other to say something. Finally he breaks the silence:

"You do realise that both your existences cannot continue."

"Fine kill us, see if we care." Dan’s eyes widen slightly at this but I shoot him a reassuring look. 

"Even if we do die, the damage is done. Everyone knows. There's nothing you can do to stop that. You can't drug everyone."

The leader doesn't reply. Instead he sits with a thoughtful expression on his face. Finally he breaks the silence and says:

“You two have caused me enough trouble. Get them out of my sight,” he says to the guards standing by the door. “Kill them or don’t, I don’t care just take them away and make sure they never come back.”

The guards grab our arms and drag us out of the room. I’m panicking a little, what if the guards just kill us?

“Hey guys,” I say to them as they pull us down the hallway. “You aren’t really going to kill us are you?”


	4. Epilogue

Dan and I never got killed, instead we got put back on a train, and sent to Fallwyn. Say what you want about the leader but at least he didn’t kill us, and the guards gave us some food, water and a blanket. We arrived in Fallwyn to welcoming arms. Dan’s family took me in and later on we got a house for ourselves. We slowly watched the Areas rebel against the leader and the whole country fall without once being inconvenienced. Fallwyn never saw the broadcast, they never knew what me and Dan did, and we never told them, we tried to suppress the memories and live happy life. Which we did. We adopted a little girl and she grew up to be an amazing woman, we had everything we ever wanted. I never saw my family again, but I never missed, except for Tina. I still miss Tina sometimes, and I hope she’s alright. But I basically got the life i wanted. And I am so happy I got in that trains all those years ago.


End file.
